Editors' Blogs

In my last blog post, I included some videos from a recent tracking session. We're doing an EP (4 songs) with this band and the videos were from the basic tracking sessions. I thought the next logical post would be about editing and how I attack it, but then it occurred to me that I should explain my approach a bit first...

First Approach

Some bands are all about a live vibe. I know, I know, everyone thinks that every band wants to capture their live vibe. I'm all for that, but some acts necessitate a live vibe. I might think of Hendrix, for example. With only a trio, each player is reacting to everyone's subtleties that are ultimately unique to each take/performance. So you really can't get away with overdubbing main parts--the energy just won't be there. Your best approach is probably to record the whole band live, and only punch in fixes. Either that or edit together whole takes.

Second Approach

With most modern and popular music, a more polished final product is often desired. To achieve this, we do more overdubs, fix things, edit things and layer things until it sounds how we want it. Until it has the right amount of shine.

My Approach

Okay, so my personal approach (and I think this works for a lot of other people, too) is to start with the first approach and then turn it into the second approach. 

What we did with this band What About Pluto? was focus on drums and bass during basic tracks. Of course I'll make sure the guitars sound great in case we get something usable, but the focus remains on the core. With each tune we did a bunch of takes with the whole band playing together live. This seems to keep the takes feeling live and not too rigid. We worked with the drummer and bass player to make sure we were getting the material and energy we needed, but never worried about getting one perfect take. 

In the end, we had 3-4 really good takes top to bottom where the drums and bass were locking in and feeling good. 

Edit time

After the tracking session we went back to our small room for some editing (we're actually still in the midst...). At this point I mute everything except for the drums and click track. Depending on how tight the bass is with the original performance, I may or may not listen to it. The focus is to listen to the drums and find the best pieces from each take, both in terms of energy and technical performance. 

I then comp the track onto a new playlist (I'm a Pro Tools guy) and go through and clean up my edits with tab to region boundary.

Elastic Time

Elastic Audio, the feature introduced in Pro Tools 7.4, has made the next part of editing a blast. I used to chop up sections of drums that weren't tight and move them by hand (or use Beat Detective if I needed to be more invasive). Now, I just grab Warp Markers and move things where I want. If all of the drum tracks are in a group, the phase relationships will remain the same. So, I can basically grab a kick drum hit (or any other hit) and move it where I want and all of the other tracks will move the same.

The best part are drum fills. If I want a particular fill to push or sit behind the beat a little bit (or moreso than it was played) I can move each hit back or forward to accomplish this feel. I always keep the click track right above the other drum tracks in the Edit window so I can see the grid and have a visual reference. Judicious use of this technique can make for really musical tracks.

Bass Time

As I mentioned before, with really good drum and bass tracks, I'll probably do that whole process above with the bass on at the same time. If the bass needs more work, I'll listen to it separately so I can get out my rag and polish accordingly.

I follow the same basic procedure here, comping the bass takes and then editing for groove and feel. I think it's also very wise to double check the bass track's intonation at this point. If it's even a little bit out of tune and you missed it during tracking, fire up Melodyne or Auto Tune (or your weapon of choice) and get it right. There are fewer things in the world funkier than an out of tune bass. It makes all of the other tracks sound funny, and is really hard to put your finger on later down the road. 

How do you do it?

I'm really curious: how do you go about nailing down that initial feel and editing the drums and bass? Do you have a similar approach to mine, or something totally different?Whenever I hear a good sounding record, I often wonder how they got this part done. Obviously if you have killer players, that solves the issue, but for us mere mortals (or Heaven forbid I am playing drums on a track...), what's your approach? Comment or email me with ideas.

-Justin